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U.s. Salmon Aquaculture : Ethical Issues

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U.S. Salmon Aquaculture: Ethical Issues in Farmed Salmon
Kimberly Jones
Troy University
Dr. Miller

Abstract
There are many ethical arguments surrounding aquaculture. The salmon industry in the United States has many ethical concerns in relation to farmed salmon. This paper will first discuss the salmon industry, then discuss specific ethical issues facing farmed salmon, and finally review any laws, regulations or relief efforts in place to reduce these ethical concerns, or that aggravate these concerns.
Keywords: aquaculture, ethics, genetically modified organisms, GMOs, salmon
U.S. Aquaculture: Ethical Issues in Farmed Salmon
Animal agriculture has been utilized for thousands of years to provide human beings with dependable sources …show more content…

Palm oil harvest often leads to deforestation of the rainforests, and raises many ethical concerns from the public, (Levitt, 2015).
Harm to Wild Salmon Populations.
When fish like salmon are farmed, often the fish are still kept in the ocean; however, they live inside of nets so that they are still contained. There are many ethical arguments based around these net systems because these nets pose threats to wild salmon. Captive salmon can escape from the nets, which allows them to breed with wild salmon. This can disrupt the natural gene pool of wild salmon. Farmed salmon have been shown to outgrow wild salmon when introduced into the wild, and typically have higher mortality rates, which would be poor traits to be introduced into the wild gene pool, (Hindar, et al., 2006). Unfortunately, with the invasive farmed salmon being introduced to wild populations from escapees of net systems, the recovery of the original wild salmon is unlikely, even if decades went by without more intrusive farmed salmon being present, (Hindar, et al., 2006). Another problem is that the nets do not contain wastes from the captive salmon inside, wastes such as uneaten feed, and feces from the fish are dispersed into the open waters of the ocean. Wild salmon can contract infections and parasites from captive farmed salmon in nets. A study indicated that these parasites, such as sea lice, and infections lead to high mortality rates in wild salmon passing near

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